Another great read Ben. Fingers crossed the fan cures the over heating issues ... you will certainly need them cured for the dune driving. I think beyond a full flush (if it hasn't been done already) the only option you have is an upgraded radiator?
"As some of you know I was very kindly invited on an epic Simpson Desert trip planned for September this year, by Tony S and Chris at FNB.
Now as I've spent most of the last 4 weeks living in a tent I decided that for my Simpson trip a roof top tent would be a much better option!
Don't get me wrong for my normal short trips around the Victorian High Country I'm happy packing up and setting up a ground tent everyday, but on the Simpson trip I think a RTT will be a lot better! "
Just another option is a swag, and the new dome swags are great. I have the ARB one, but Southern Cross make one as well, and think that's aussie made. They are extremely comfy, ready made, and light to go on a rack. For the Simpson trip I am having an awning fitted to Betsy, give shade come rain or shine, and it was on offer with the sides as well.
With the possibility of it being pretty warm, lunchtime shade could be welcome, and it would all be less coin than a RTT.
Just another option. Thoughts please?
Cheers.
also for,those of you,on FB, Betsy has her own page now," Betsy gets pimped and pumped" ,as she is having a make over.
But I'm a bit concerned that you might have problems with mud getting trapped in the back of the box. It's a very thin slot (which is good and neat) but muddy boards stuffed in there in a hurry will push mud in and once it's dried, might take a bit of shifting out! Also if it builds up, you won't be able to shut the door!
Last time on the Middle East I saw a few V12 G Wagons, they must be monsters!
Great post anyway, thanks for your efforts (bummer the direct pics didn't show, hope Cris can fix it...)
But the idea is that they arnt there for recovery purposes, thats what I've got a tricked up Warn High mount for, + I dont normally go out alone.
For me the waffles are purely for bridging big boulders, logs etc. They are for when the 37" tyres, lockers and minimal bodywork over hang front and back arnt enough.
Obviously they are still going to pick up some mud, so I will have to try and bang the mud out of them or push it out with a stick. The other option would be to just strap them to the bullbar if they get really muddy or even put them on the roof rack that I'm yet to build.
Another great read Ben. Fingers crossed the fan cures the over heating issues ... you will certainly need them cured for the dune driving. I think beyond a full flush (if it hasn't been done already) the only option you have is an upgraded radiator?
Thanks mate. Newish rad, new thermostat, new rad cap, new coolant, new water pump. It really shouldn't be overheating, I mean lots of people have the 1KZ-T/1KZ-TE over here and don't have overheating issues so I must be able to sort it. But yes an upgraded rad is a good idea, thanks.
Have you read the page where I was away on an epic 4wd trip in Wales (UK) and I rolled the truck off the side of a mountain, 2 months before LJ was due to go in a container to be shipped down here? Makes for interesting reading I think.
Just another option is a swag, and the new dome swags are great. I have the ARB one, but Southern Cross make one as well, and think that's aussie made. They are extremely comfy, ready made, and light to go on a rack. For the Simpson trip I am having an awning fitted to Betsy, give shade come rain or shine, and it was on offer with the sides as well.
With the possibility of it being pretty warm, lunchtime shade could be welcome, and it would all be less coin than a RTT.
Just another option. Thoughts please?
Cheers.
also for,those of you,on FB, Betsy has her own page now," Betsy gets pimped and pumped" ,as she is having a make over.
Thanks Tony, I hadnt really considered the swag option.
A few of the guys in the 4wd club I'm in use swags and set them up under an awning like you suggest, they also set the swags up on a stretcher to keep them off the ground.
Maybe that would be a better way for me to go than a RTT, I guess atleast I could/would then be able to use that on my regular extreme trips.
The only downsides I can see to a swag are:
-Pretty big when all packed up.
-Not enough room to get dressed/un-dressed in side the swag like you would a tent.
-Not big enough for 2 people should I get lucky.
Apart from those points I think there good not that I've slept in one yet.
With LJ being tall and narrow I think you'd really notice a change in handling with a roof tent up top Ben. You might be better off putting the money into a good ground tent? Those swags look good but by the time you've strung up a tarp you might as well have put up a tent with more room? What about one of the smaller Oz tents, if you're building a rack anyway you'll have somewhere to transport it and away from the edges of the rack is not really likely to get damaged even on your more extreme trips? If you don't put the canopy out they really are quick and if you do put the canopy up you can put the back end of LJ under it for shelter.
With LJ being tall and narrow I think you'd really notice a change in handling with a roof tent up top Ben. You might be better off putting the money into a good ground tent? Those swags look good but by the time you've strung up a tarp you might as well have put up a tent with more room? What about one of the smaller Oz tents, if you're building a rack anyway you'll have somewhere to transport it and away from the edges of the rack is not really likely to get damaged even on your more extreme trips? If you don't put the canopy out they really are quick and if you do put the canopy up you can put the back end of LJ under it for shelter.
The idea of a RTT was that I thought it would be a lot easier than setting up and packing up a ground tent everyday, but I think the Oz tents are pretty quick arnt they? I will have to do some more research I think.
I do like the idea of having an awning on the roof rack for shade and shelter, but I'd like it if I could some how mount it to the roof rack in such a way that the roof rack can brush against trees if need be and the awning not get damaged.
Id especially like an awning over the rear doors to shelter me when cooking, but I'm not sure there available that narrow, I've certainly not seen any. I suppose a foxwing would work though.
I think a roof rack would be useful but I want to keep it as light as possible as I don't want to make LJ any tippier.
Oztents are brilliant and very quick but you still have to carry all your bedding and sleep mats inside. They are so quick I use to use them just to put up for cooking lunch times for shelter in bad weather, just as quick as an awning.
I think the material is even better now since I had mine and all you need is a long basket in the middle of the roof to Cary them.
yep always a catch but then if the bedding is in the truck you do at least know it's dry, hopefully I think a folding roof tent and Oz Tent are probably similar set up / pack away time and effort. Being up off the ground and not too worried about ground conditions with a roof tent is nice but you have to cart it about and it will be no use for your other trips which is probably most of them? In warm and dry conditions one of those swags might be favourite but I don't tend to think warm and dry conditions when I think about camping, can't think why
OK I just need to steer the thread away from tents for a moment because...............................I've got some pics for you.
So yesterday morning I woke up in the city after a big night out to find a txt off my house mate Michael saying he wanted to go 4wding for the day.
So I shot straight home, we loaded the 80 with food and drink and off we went.
When we did the night drive a month or 2 ago to Talarook and found some really tough tracks, tracks so tough that trucks on 37" tyres and both lockers in would struggle/need to winch we decided we should come back and do a proper trip there. So the idea was to run it as a club trip and put it down as an extreme one.
(Since I've been in my local club, no one has run extreme trips, they've all been medium with the odd hard one on the trip rating system).
So our trip is down as extreme and people coming need lockers and a good winch, ideally a high mount.
So the idea was to do a rece trip and find some good tracks for the trip which is in a few weeks time.
An hour north of Melbourne and there was quite a lot of fog around and it was still quite chilly even at mid day.
Now the plan was to explore the state forests and see if we could find any interesting tracks.
For the first few hours we didn't find much, in fact there were large areas of forest we couldn't get into due to locked gates thanks to Melbourne Water.
Eventually we followed some dirt roads.
That led to some OK tracks.
It also turned into a beautiful day!
We drove around the forest on the main tracks and chose side tracks to explore based on what we could see on the map. We were looking for nice steep tracks.
Many tracks were blocked by tree litter and we had to crack the chainsaw out a few times.
On one very steep rocky track that didn't look very well used we found a rolled landy next to the track.
It didn't look like it had been there long as the steering wheel and seats wernt that moldy. It had obviously been stolen as the ignition had been hot wired. I thought it interesting that all the doors and bonnet had been taken, then it had been pushed over onto its roof and all the wheels taken.
Cant see it ever being recovered, unless they put wheels on it it would be very difficult and expensive.
The pie oven in the back of the 80 kept us in constant supply of hot pies. I'm very tempted to get one for LJ.
As it hasnt rained for a while dust was a big problem! When we do the trip we might well have to keep miles apart to keep out of the truck in fronts dust.
We spotted lots of nice camp sites that we could use on the trip.
A lot of the tracks were well signposted.
We found some really steep tracks.
And a few with a lot of water erosion making the track very challenging.
Anyone guess what model Toyota this is/was?
Some very steep rocky climbs.
Some bush mechanics re-attaching a loose flare.
Doesnt look much does it?
Does now!
This is the other area where our trip will be, its only a 20 minute drive South of Talarook.
More interesting tracks.
All the seasonally closed tracks were now open.
Beautiful views on some of the tracks.
We found a lot of the tracks that were visible on the Hema map on the I-pad simply didnt exist anymore. We also had some old paper maps showing hundreds of tracks which wernt shown at all on the up to date Hema. Such a shame to see that so many tracks have been lost.
Many had fallen trees across them and were very overgrown.
We stopped a few times and had a look on foot, even walking for a few hundred meters in, taking the I-pad with us so we knew we were on track there was absolutely no trace of a track having ever existed!
Eventually we found an old track that was clearly still used by motorbikes. It started off reasonably wide, but quickly got tighter and tighter.
(My old Suzuki mate Brett would have loved it, I have fond memories of him leading me down ridiculously tight lanes in the UK, his little Jimny squeezing through and poor LJ struggling to fit through and picking up lots of damage in the process!)
It reminded me of Clarkson on the Topgear Bolivia special where hes forging tracks in the old Rangerover!
It was slow going at times and we had already been on the track for a few hours by this point.
We soon reached a point where there were fallen trees and lots of small trees blocking the track.
So out with the tools.
Eventually we had a path cleared.
And we could get the 80 through and down.
The track ahead looked interesting. There was a steep descent into a small creek with a very steep climb up out of it with lots of fallen trees at the top of the climb.
View from the other side as we began clearing the fallen trees.
As the logs were so big we wrapped a drag chain around them and winched them clear of the track.
Michael attempted to drive up it, but even with both lockers in the little 35's struggled so we hooked the winch up and he was soon up.
Further on we encountered more large fallen trees.
Fortunately we were able to follow the path the motorbikes had made.
It was by this time pretty late.
We got back onto the main track and after looking at a few more old blocked tracks we headed for home. The road going GPS directed us down a crazy track with some huge rock steps! We hadnt bothered exploring this track earlier in the day as its name was something road and we wrongly thought that a track called something road was more likely to be a main track/road rather than anything challenging. We were very wrong!
We got home just after midnight!
So we've got some awesome tracks for our weekend extreme trip!
Before that were going on a club trip to an area I've not been to before in the Vic High Country, but an area that I've read a lot about Dargo!
A lot of you will have seen the iconic pics of a track in the High Country where the 4wd is on the top of a very high ridge looking out over thousands of mountains. That is the Billy Goat Bluff track in the Dargo area and I've seen many pics from that track in lots of 4wd magazines. That track is rated as double black diamond which is the highest/most extreme track rating that 4wd Victoria have.
Care must be taken apparently on the climb up as there has sadly been fatalities over the years.
Its going to be a big trip with 2 convoys of 10 already signed up and there will be lots of families and kids going. Being as its quite away away Michael and I will both run the little tyres for that trip and then put the 37"s on for the extreme trip which is the weekend after.
Anyway.......................................12.30 here now and I've got to crack on and get some work done on LJ.
Hopefully meeting up with Scott this week so we'll do a comparison of swags (which we use and love) and Scott's RTT
My swag, with 2 pillows, a doona/duvet and a 10cm self inflating mat fits between the wheel arches in the 4Runner... Although I might leave the doona out this week... It rolls to about 18" diameter and 4' long or so.
My brother bought an ARB double swag through a mate, before actually seeing one first. When I went round his to take a look a nearly wet myself laughing. Packed up it is HUGE! It looks like a rolled up rubber dinghy. It takes 2 of us to get it in the back of his Patrol.
I think one of the major disadvantages of swags is the shear size of them when there packed up.
I've just had a measure up in the back of LJ, and behind the front seats I've got 1400mm between the sides of the truck so I need to see how long the OZ tents are packed up. Obviously it could go on the roof, but if it would fit in the truck I think I'd rather it was inside.
Still not decided between RTT/Swag/OZ tent, but I am liking the idea of an OZ tent if its not to big packed up and is reasonably quick and easy to set up/take down.
OK having looked at the OZ Tent website and watched a few videos on youtube.......................
I like the OZ Tents, there great. But I'd still ideally carry a stretcher to get me up off the ground, so thats something else to carry in LJ/on the roof.
The major issue I have with them is the shear size when packed up. Even the smallest one the OZ Tent RV-1 is 1.6m long so would have to go on a roof rack as it is too long to fit in the car.
Then I spotted the OZ Tent Bunker. Now it was Rollence who posted up about these a few months ago and I thought they were great then. I did ask my boss for a price but he was very busy at the time and I needed him to get me prices on other parts more urgently so I didn't follow up and ask him again for a price.
Now what I especially like about these is that your already on a stretcher off the ground, with a mattress. There looks to be more room in them than a swag and when folded up they are much much smaller than a swag so one of these would easily fit in the back of LJ.
The packed up size is only 250mm x 250mm x 1040mm.
The only disadvantage I can see with them is that there only for one person. So what happens if I buy one and then meet an amazing girl who wants to come on 4wd trips with me. I'm guessing then I'd have to buy a normal OZ Tent and make and fit a roof rack.
Maybe another reason to avoid relationships for a few more years, so I can get some use out of my OZ Tent Bunker.
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